


The Common Lie

by Angylsmuse, Orithain



Series: Will to Power [4]
Category: Andromeda (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, M/M, Plot What Plot/Porn Without Plot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-03
Updated: 2016-10-03
Packaged: 2018-08-19 01:14:53
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,855
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8183198
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Angylsmuse/pseuds/Angylsmuse, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Orithain/pseuds/Orithain
Summary: Harper wants to make it up to Tyr for the mood he's been in lately.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted November 2002.

**_The most common lie is that which one lies to himself; lying to others is relatively an exception._  
~ Friedrich Nietzsche**

Harper double-checked the leather cuffs attached to his wrists and ankles. Loose enough to rotate but tight enough not to slip off, good. The clothing, or lack thereof, was that of a Nietzschean pleasure slave, leather and filmy fabric, just enough to cover and tantalize but not enough to interrupt any view. His second nipple piercing had healed quite nicely in the intervening hours that Tyr had been on the Sabra homeworld dropping off his dowry tribute, as had been promised in the marriage contract to the _bitch_ , and then the shift spent on the bridge, without a 'sulking' mate.

Well, Harper had decided to let the older man stew in his own juices since Tyr knew how much he despised the woman that his lover had claimed as his new first wife, and it had given him a chance to plan this little apology for his behavior on the new Kodiak homeworld earlier in the week. Harper couldn't help but think to himself that if it had only been another world and another situation, he might have considered the Nietzschean first daughter a severe hottie, but--Harper managed a passable rendition of a growl at the thought of _his_ Tyr sharing her bed--it wasn't. It was _his_ mate, and it was the bitch.

But whether he liked it or not, the fact was that Tyr was simply being Nietzschean, and he was also doing what was best for Kodiak and, if Harper were brutally honest with himself (something he wasn't fond of doing), for the humans under his care - especially the Harper. It just really burned Seamus' balls sometimes that there was the whole double standard taking place: Tyr could have a woman and have kids, but he couldn't.

Not that he'd given much thought to procreation, but the fact was that Harper liked women as much as men. Well, maybe not _as_ much, but he could get a healthy hard-on for the feminine physique, no mistake about that. But that was a whole other kettle of worms and something they'd either work out in time, or Harper would just have to accept that, as much as he kinda liked the thought of leaving a legacy of little Harpers--if the universe got better, that was--it might not happen. If it was little Harpers or Tyr, it was pretty cut and dried which one he'd take, and he'd try not to mourn the loss too much.

But back to the apology, well sort of apology, for Tyr. He figured the big guy needed to know that Harper was still nutso for him, and they'd never played this sort of game before so... Harper was dressed as a sex slave, ready to serve whatever whim his 'master' demanded of him.

Reaching up, he tugged at his slave collar and squirmed slightly as the self-heating lubricant he'd applied a short time ago began to make certain parts of him quiver and demand relief from the build up of heat without friction. In the bedroom candles and incense burned, and there was a variety of toys laid out for Tyr's approval, ranging from dildos and vibrators to blindfolds and velvet floggers. Tonight he was going to allow both Tyr and himself to push the envelope of their relationship and their kinks.

"Harper, Tyr is on his way to your quarters," Rommie informed the human. "And he's alone."

"Thanks, Rommie. Engage privacy when he gets here, will ya? And make sure we're not commed unless it's an end-of-the-world kind of problem."

"Of course, Harper. Have fun," the ship's artificial intelligence replied.

"Thank you, Rommie, I have a feeling we will. You'll probably see Tyr tomorrow, but don't expect to see me for a while. I'm gonna be wrung out. Let Engineering know, okay?"

Sliding a hand inside the loose-fitting gauze pants, Harper stroked his cock, encased in a leather thong, a few times to add to his erection and need. The silver ring shivered in his navel, and his nipple hoops danced and glinted in the half-light. Kneeling with his forehead pressed to the floor by the door, Harper waited for the hiss that signaled its opening and Tyr's arrival. He almost quivered in anticipation of the reaction his spread and filled ass would receive when the captain came home to his collared and leashed 'pet'.

Tyr hesitated outside the door to the quarters he shared with Harper, almost reluctant to step inside. Though Harper professed to understand his need to take new wives and breed more children, the human had been somewhat less than agreeable when the time came. Ever since Tyr had allied with the Sabra Pride through marriage to their First Daughter, Harper had been miserable. Tyr still loved him--nothing would change that--but he found it more pleasant to spend extra time on the bridge.

He almost turned away to go back before he reminded himself that it wouldn't help anything. He needed to work this out with Harper, or it would only get worse. Taking a deep breath, he stepped forward and inside the cabin, only to stop in his tracks at the sight that met him. He stared at Harper dressed as a pleasure slave, his entire body instantly hard and needy.

So Harper wanted to play games, did he, wanted to have Tyr own him tonight? The Nietzschean captain would be more than happy to satisfy him.

"Engage privacy lock on the door," he murmured in case Harper hadn't already done so.

"Greet me, Pet," he barked, spreading his legs and waiting for the young man to give him the greeting taught to Nietzschean pleasure slaves.

Harper came to hands and knees in one graceful movement, head bowed as he crawled across the floor, ass wiggling invitingly, to do as he was bidden. Kneeling before the older man, Harper bent forward, placing his head on the floor in a deep obeisance, hands spread out in front of him, before returning to his kneeling position.

"How may I serve you tonight, my lord?" the engineer purred, his whole body and demeanor soft and pliant. "How may I beg forgiveness for my actions and please you?" _How can I get you to forgive me for being a royal pain in the ass?_ Harper's inner monologue continued.

"Undress me," Tyr ordered, shifting slightly as the tight leather pants grew more constrictive, then arching his pelvis forward a bit. "Then take me in your mouth and pleasure me." His voice had grown harsh and raspy with his arousal.

Licking his lips, Harper's hands trembled as they rose to undo the straining leather straps that held his lover's pants together. He couldn't believe how nervous he was... or how excited. It was almost like the first time again or something new, beguiling and delicious. Slipping the loops out and undoing the zipper so that Tyr's erection sprang free, the younger man caressed the weeping tip with his forefinger before licking the essence off his own digit.

"As my lord wishes," the younger man purred, stroking the erect shaft against his stubbled cheek then lapping the precum onto his tongue and savoring the taste for long moments. Wrapping his lips around the Nietzschean's girth, Harper flicked his tongue back and forth across the tip, trying to insert the point of his tongue into the slit before swallowing the erect shaft to its base.

Tyr bit back a groan and stared down at the blond head at his groin. Unable to resist, he ran his fingers through the spiky hair, holding Harper close for a moment before forcing himself to let go. Harper was _very_ good at that, and the piercing in his tongue added an indescribably sensation.

"Don't make me come," he warned. "I intend to come deep inside you... when I'm ready."

Making a tiny sound of dissatisfaction, Harper eased back so that only the tip of Tyr's cock remained in his mouth. Bracing his hands on Tyr's hips, he began to bob his head up and down, running his tongue piercing back and forth over the sensitive underside, teasing the Nietzschean until strong hands gripped and pulled his head away.

As he looked up through veiled lashes, Harper's tongue darted out to lick around his now puffy lips, his tongue piercing glinting as he gathered the last of Tyr's moisture. "Did I please you, master?" the human purred quietly, stroking his face against the almost hairless thigh of the Nietzschean.

"A good start," Tyr replied before pulling Harper up so he could kiss him thoroughly before letting him sink back to the floor.

"I'm glad that I could please my lord," Harper replied, licking his lips thoroughly, still tasting his lover's essence on them. Nuzzling at Tyr's balls with his nose then running the tip of his tongue up and over the head of the Nietzschean's cock, Harper looked up. "How may I please you next, lord?"

"Go to the bed, attach your ankle cuffs to the chains and one wrist, and wait for me," Tyr instructed, watching Harper closely. When his "slave" had obeyed his directions, he approached him and fastened the other wrist cuff, leaving the young human spread-eagled and vulnerable. "Very nice." He reached over to the nightstand and pulled out a long feather. Holding it up in front of Harper's eyes, he smiled.

Gulping audibly, Harper's eyes grew round and large. "Oh god," the younger man whimpered, "I'm so screwed."

"Not yet, Pet, but you will be," Tyr promised. He lowered the feather and stroked the very tip ever so lightly down the center of Harper's body. Reaching his squirming lover's navel, he circled the soft tip around the indentation over and over until Harper was whimpering softly and twisting in his bonds, and only then did he delve the tip into the center.

Squirming as much as he could, Harper tried to shift his body out of reach of the feather. "Please, oh please, Tyr. Oh God!" the younger man moaned bucking up and around the torture device that the older man was plying on him. His cock began to weep precome, and his body quivered with need. "You're killing me here!"

"Did I tell you you could talk?" Tyr reached down to check that the leather strapping was properly fastened, ensuring that Harper wouldn't come until he let him. Finding that it was, he paused to stroke the straining length and roll the heavy balls in his palm. " _Very_ nice." His hand glided back to the handle of the dildo protruding from Harper's ass, and he moved it back and forth a few times.

Biting down on his lip hard, the young man tried to hold back the mewl of need that still managed to escape from his throat. Closing his eyes, hoping to somehow stave off some of the effects of the sight of his dominant lover in rare and true Nietzschean form, Harper silently took the torturous pleasure that Tyr heaped on him and prayed that he'd be allowed his release sometime before his balls decided to explode or implode or burst or whatever.

He remembered, vaguely, the sessions that had taught him the control that Tyr seemed to be seeking, but it was so long ago and in another life. He'd tried so hard to become the complete opposite of that creature that he'd deliberately sabotaged his own training. Man, was he regretting it now.

Gasping softly as the feather traced along his straining cock and over his balls then slid between his wide spread legs, tickling around the base of the dildo, the young human quivered as if an electric shock had just connected with his spine. " **OH GOD**!" he yelped, not able to hold back any longer but still trying to comply with his "master's" wishes.

Liking that reaction, Tyr left the feather where it was, lightly flicking over Harper's stretched opening, and he leaned in closer to run the tip of his tongue over the ridged and sensitive skin around the human's implant. Definitely enjoying the scream _that_ provoked, he did it again, now with the added sensation of his low purring. His spikes flared slightly, brushing against Harper's navel, though Tyr was careful to keep his arm angled so that there was no danger of hurting his mate.

Harper's entire body shivered, making the chain around his waist that looped through his navel ring dance and shimmer, adding another taunting tease. Tyr was going to milk him for every reaction the Nietzschean could get, Harper just knew it. He was in major trouble here, but what trouble!

"Please, oh please, Tyr, you're driving me crazy," the human moaned, finally breaking his silence out of necessity. His whole body was drawn up tighter than a bow; his cock throbbed and wept; his balls ached and had drawn up so close to his body that he could barely feel them. He could feel his anus pulse constantly, causing the dildo to thrust in and out with minute movements that drove him into a frenzy of need.

Eyes rolling back into his head, hands curled into fists and nails cutting into the soft flesh of his palms, Harper was lost in a fugue of sensation. All he could do was feel, and every feeling was intensified exponentially due to his immobility. He was going to go mad from need; he'd turn into one of those slavering, mindless sex addicts that he remembered seeing around the training center, the ones that lived to be filled. But for Tyr, oh god, for _his_ Nietzschean, he wouldn't mind that fate at all. "Please, oh please," he mewled, his mouth flowering open in desperation, not sure what he was pleading for, only knowing that he needed to vocalize it somehow, make it real.

Tyr laid the feather aside and reached down for the dildo, grasping the handle and slowly pulling it out of the whimpering, squirming man. When Harper wailed his protest at the emptiness inside him, Tyr chuckled briefly, a low, dark sound that made the human shiver with need. He positioned himself between the quivering thighs, pressing Harper's knees farther apart, and taking his cock in his hand, he teasingly rubbed the head over the loosened ring of muscle, marking the human with his precome.

"Is this what you want inside you, pretty Pet?" he rumbled. "Beg me for it."

Harper's eyes blazed as they snapped open. "Tyr, I swear if you don't fuck me now I'm gonna... go find Agravaine and have him fuck me senseless!!" the younger man raved almost madly.

Tyr bit him hard. "Brat! You'd find it a little difficult, considering that you're chained to the bed." He did press inside Harper, however, pushing until his full length was buried in him, the wiry hairs at his groin rubbing against Harper's spread cheeks. Rearing up, he reached back and unfastened the chains from the ankle cuffs, then reached over their heads to do the same for his wrists. When Harper was freed, he rolled them over and stretched out on his back, arms crossed behind his head.

"Ride me, Pet. Show me what they taught you."

Grinning as ferally as a human could, Harper began a slow, writhing dance as he raised and lowered himself on his lover's cock. Gripping the headboard above Tyr's head with one hand, the other began to meander slowly down his chest, tweaking and flicking his nipple rings, pulling them taut, which only made his hips slam down harder onto the huge Nietzschean cock in his ass, then down the center of his stomach to tease his navel ring and dip a finger inside before continuing to his cock, which he took and began to stroke in counterpoint to the gyrations of his hips.

Letting go of the headboard long enough to reach up and wipe a smear of blood from the bite on his shoulder, Harper then sucked the digit into his mouth, his dark pink tongue darting out to lick at his lips. Wiping another smear of blood onto his fingers, the younger man coated his lips with the crimson liquid and leaned down so that he was just slightly out of reach of his lover's mouth. "Is this what my lord had in mind?" he purred softly, bucking particularly hard then circling his hips slowly, goading the Nietzschean the only way he could at the moment - through sex.

One arm came out from behind Tyr's head, and his fingers curved around the nape of Harper's neck, pulling him down so Tyr could lick the blood from his lips, then claim every inch of his mouth. His tongue was still stroking over the velvety soft surface of the human's tongue when he removed the strapping from Harper's cock by touch alone. "Come for me." He watched avidly, wanting to catch every flicker of expression on his tortured lover's face.

"Tyr," the younger man mewled softly as he rode his lover faster, clenching his anal muscles tight in order to increase both their pleasures. The increased bucking of Tyr's hips would have made him smile in well-deserved satisfaction if he hadn't have been so far-gone himself. As it was, the constant stimulation of his prostate was driving him closer and closer to the edge, riding him as he rode his mate.

Mouth open so that the soft pants of air could be taken into overtaxed lungs, his eyes glazed and dreamy, the human's hand began to stroke faster and faster on his cock, every so often moving up to pinch and tweak a much too sensitive nipple. "Yes, oh fuck, oh god, there, it's so, god yes, right, oooooh that feels, love it, stabbing, touching, god, driving me... **TYR**!!!!"

Wailing loudly as his body spasmed and shivered, dancing on the captain's cock as he continued to ride his lover even as his semen coated both their stomachs, Harper gave up trying to stimulate any part of his body other than his prostate, opting instead to brace himself on the bigger man's shoulders. He powered his body up and down on the large cock embedded deep in his ass, wanting to feel the scalding heat of the Nietzschean's come as it poured into his contracting body.

Tyr growled, having wanted to hold back until Harper had come at least two or three times, but it had been too long since they were together, and he drove up into the pulsating, tight heat that was Harper. He gave the human a few moments to recover, then ordered, "Keep me hard."

"Oh god, I'm gonna die from this, I know I am," the younger man moaned as he began to squeeze and release well ridden muscles in the hopes of doing as Tyr demanded. One of his hands snaked behind him and wrapped around Tyr's girth, adding subtle pressure to each inward stroke and retreat from Harper's spent body.

The feel of his fingers brushing against his tightly filled opening and the slight wetness that seeped out of him with each retreat of Tyr's erection had Harper panting in reaction. Fuck, that felt... lewd was the only word he could come up with.

Tyr shivered faintly when he felt Harper's fingers lightly skimming the base of his cock in addition to the tight grip of his body on the shaft. "You won't die, Pet; I won't let you. You're mine," he growled. "Nothing will ever change that, not Freya or Elsbet or anything else. I'll never let you go." He thrust upward, driving into Harper's body and staring into his eyes.

"Please don't," Harper whispered in a voice full of raw emotion. He wouldn't say more than that though, knowing that the last thing Tyr needed was a clingy mate. He wanted to be strong, to be more mature than that she-witch Tyr had married to procreate with. Harper wanted to be a better man for his lover, the kind of mate that a pride Alpha deserved to have.

Moaning, Harper let his fingers tighten infinitesimally around Tyr's cock before releasing. He continued to palpitate the hard flesh as it slammed in and out of his body, wanting to make Tyr feel as good as he did. "Besides, you'd never find anyone as perfect for you as I am ever again."

Tyr laughed breathlessly. "You really need to work on your self-esteem issues, Pet."

"Yeah, I know, I've got such a low opinion of myself," Harper groaned as Tyr's cock brushed against his prostate. "Now can we stop talking about my poor self image and concentrate on making me come again?"

"I thought you were dead?" Tyr chuckled even as he suddenly flipped them over so he was driving into Harper, intent on driving them both to another climax.

"Fuck, yes!" the human yowled as he wrapped his arms around Tyr's neck and his legs around his waist in order to hold on for dear life. He loved it when Tyr did the whole dommy-Nietzschean-in-charge sort of thing. "And will you stop talking about death and dying, and fuck me into the mattress!"

More than pleased to comply, Tyr took Harper's mouth as well as his body and thrust into him, taking him hard and fast.

Groaning constantly, Harper latched on to Tyr's neck and began to suck. Hard. Hips snapped up and back harder and harder as Harper's nails scratched bloody rivulets down his lover's back, starving for the Nietzschean, as he always was.

Tyr growled loudly, a hand working between them to stroke Harper as he took him. He gasped as his body stiffened, crying out Harper's name as he came.

Harper threw his head back and opened his mouth in a wordless scream as his own second orgasm rushed through him. His body clamped down and tightened around Tyr's cock. Over and over his body shivered as his cock pumped out its seed over his stomach. Finally his vocal chords unfroze enough for him to mewl out his appreciation of his lover's rather formidable stamina.

"Oh god that was... mmmm."

"Hopefully it was enough to convince you that I'm perfectly happy right here with you, Pet." Tyr rolled to the side, bringing Harper with him so that they lay entwined. He lay silently for some time, simply enjoying holding and stroking Harper. Finally, unable to resist, he said dryly, "And isn't this a much better use of our time together than worrying about my wife?"

"Mmm, much better. It even helped me forget the lovely present she sent me of a tape of your wedding night, despite the shock I received when I opened the file and saw... well, I'm sure you remember what I saw."

"What?!?!" Tyr sat bolt upright in bed and stared down at Harper in disbelief. "She sent you _what_?" He was out of bed and striding for a communications console before he'd finished asking the question.

Harper bolted out of bed and latched on to the Nietzschean's arm, trying rather unsuccessfully to stop him. "Tyr, **TYR**! Will you knock it off? She was probably just trying to remind me just what my position was in the structure of your life. As if this," his hand traced over the double helix armband on Tyr's left forearm, "didn't remind me. She's a Nietzschean First Daughter; I've gotta be one hell of a slap in the face. After all, you chose to leave your 'honeymoon' to play on the beach with a kludge. Like you said, can't we just have a nice, sexy night, just the two of us?"

Tyr was still growling, spikes fully extended as he experienced a killing rage usually reserved for battle... or whenever anyone did anything to harm Harper. "She _dared_ interfere with my choice in that manner?" He could hardly believe it. Finally, he stepped back, relaxing slightly as he allowed Harper to tug him back toward the bed.

"Very well, Pet, just us tonight," he said, leaning down a bit to kiss him and silently vowing to teach Elsbet just how big a mistake she'd made. He swept Harper up into his arms and carried him the last few steps to the bed, where he laid him down and stretched out beside him. He began to give his mate a leisurely tongue bath, and when he'd reached his navel, he raised his head with a wicked grin.

"Still tired?" he murmured, knowing that Harper would be virtually insatiable that night after allowing himself to fall back into his training mindset.

Wide blue eyes gone dark and needy, Harper whimpered quietly, thrusting up into his lover's tongue. "No. Tyr, you drive me crazy," the younger man husked, running his fingers through the dark chocolate braids. "I love the way you make me crazy, the way you make me scream and moan and shiver and dance on your cock as you take me."

Rolling to his hands and knees, arching his back, the younger man offered himself to his lover, wriggling his hips invitingly.

A raspy chuckle was his reply. "Demanding, aren't you?" It wasn't a question. Erect again as he always seemed to be around Harper, Tyr made short work of positioning himself behind his lover and taking him. He pounded into the squirming man, driving in and out, hands grasping his hips fiercely. He pulled Harper back into every thrust, going deeper and harder. When Harper started to raise a hand to his dripping erection, Tyr growled.

"No. Don't touch yourself. You come from me fucking you."

"Nnooooooo," the younger man moaned piteously but nonetheless let his hand fall back to the bed in order to brace himself more firmly. He adored Tyr when he was like this, so incredibly sexy and dominating, so in control and delicious. "Gonna kill me one day, gonna drive me crazy with lust or let me waste away into a dried up husk, spent from too many orgasms," the engineer whined, bucking back into the strong body behind him.

He could feel Tyr's hands digging into his hips, could feel the bruises beginning to form under the strong grip of the older man, and he mewled plaintively, surging back even harder, his cock dripping constantly, his prostate caressed by the tip of Tyr's cock, his whole body quivering with ever increasing arousal.

One of Tyr's hands rose to the back of Harper's neck and pressed down until the human lowered his head and shoulders to the bed, letting him go a fraction deeper. He groaned harshly, loving the sensation of Harper tight around him, clinging and reluctantly releasing him. Hearing the increasing pitch of his lover's mewls, he smiled tightly. "That's it, Pet. Let me hear how much you enjoy this; tell me how much you want me. Come for me, Harper."

"God, so deep, can feel you all the way to my throat. You're so big, can feel you everywhere," the younger man whimpered, thrusting back harder and harder, impaling himself on the captain's cock. "Driving me crazy, in me so deep, all the way, everywhere, over me, in me, on top... oh god, on top of me, driving into me and driving me so... Tyr, oh... Oh god, TYR," Harper's whine continued to grow and grow until it was a high pitched shriek that was abruptly cut off by Harper biting into the fabric of the bed.

Bucking back hard into the pounding Nietzschean hips, Harper felt his whole body contract and spasm, his semen painting his stomach and the sheets below him with its sticky heat. Collapsing onto the mattress even as Tyr continued to power into him, Harper milked his lover's cock, desperate to feel Tyr come apart inside him once more.

Barely holding back as he listened to Harper's cries and descriptions, Tyr fought to restrain himself until he felt him come. "Yessss," he growled, slamming into Harper a few more times until the rippling pulsations around him pulled his climax from him. He arched up above his gasping lover in a paroxysm of pleasure, then slumped over him as the waves of sensation ebbed, leaving him limp and sated. "I love you, Seamus Harper," he murmured, licking lazily at a salty-tasting shoulder.

"Mmmm, love you too, big guy. Especially when you wreck me," the younger man purred, loving the feeling of his Nietzschean blanket above him once more. "Missed you."

Tyr rumbled contentedly, inhaling deeply to draw the familiar scent of Harper and sex into his nostrils. "I missed you as well," he admitted, allowing his full weight to rest on his human lover, knowing by now that Harper enjoyed it and would tell him when he grew too heavy. "I won't have to leave the ship again for some time," he said, trying to let Harper know in a roundabout way that he wasn't going to his wife anytime soon. Not for another eight and a half months, but he wasn't insane enough to tell Harper _that_.

A tiny frown passed over Seamus' expression. "Just don't... don't tell me when, okay? Say you're going on a raid or for supplies or anything but tell me you're going to see _her_ ," Harper tried hard not to spit out the last word but still managed to get out a venomous hiss. "I really, _really_ don't need that kind of info, okay?"

Noting the darkening of Tyr's expression over his shoulder, Harper sighed. "I'm trying, Tyr, really. She just... If I had spikes, they'd be standing straight on end and not from pleasure, you follow? She sets my alarms off and pushes all the wrong buttons. She'd probably wipe the floor with me, but it would be one helluva catfight, so it's best we stay worlds apart - literally.

"I don't want to cause you grief, and I _am_ trying; I just think... it best if I don't know all the gruesome details, 'kay?" Harper finished with a weak smile. "I love you so much it makes me crazy to think of you with... well, you know.

"If you think I don't like her, it probably doesn't hold a candle to how much she dislikes me, big guy. I mean, I'm male, and I'm a kludge, and by Nietzschean definition that's exactly what I am, so don't go getting growly on me. You can't procreate with me; you fight for me; you chose to travel with me over stay with her, and... well, you love me. It's gotta burn a serious hole in her high and mighty skirts, ya know?" Harper said quietly.

"Freya tried to kill me for less than that, Tyr. I'm not saying..." he swallowed a mouthful of bile, "Elsbet will, but she's got the same drives and imperatives as you do, and I'm in her way. I'd rather not get to close to one of her blasters or whips or bombs or spikes or daggers or assassins or... Well, you get the idea."

Tyr frowned, but he couldn't deny that the thought of Harper with anyone else would make him crazy, so he couldn't really expect anything less of his lover. And he certainly didn't want to put Harper in danger again; Freya had provided more than enough of that. But after seeing Harper with his other children, he didn't like the idea of his future children not having that caring presence in their lives.

"We'll have to work something out for the children," he said slowly. "Now that we're recreating our home, the children will go back, all but the oldest. Of mine, only Loki is old enough to remain on the Andromeda. Will you never see them again?"

"I do wanna see the kids; they're... cute when they're not swarming me like a bunch of hungry Magog," Harper continued with a soft smile. "But I don't see any way out."

Tyr frowned. They would make a way. Now that he'd seen Harper with his children, he would not allow anyone or anything to deprive any of them of that. "Maybe we can bring them to the ship occasionally," he mused. "Right now, however, I think what we need most is a shower?" He raised an eyebrow interrogatively.

"You saying I stink again?" Harper grinned up at the older man, eyebrows waggling. "Why, Tyr, you say the sweetest, most romantic things! If I do, it's your fault, you know. Damn, you went dommy on me today \- was rather, umm, wow!"

The Nietzschean's expression could only be called smug. Not bothering to reply beyond that smirk, he carefully pulled out of Harper finally and stood up, scooping the smaller man up into his arms, and padded into the washroom. He let Harper slide to his feet as he stepped under the hot spray of the shower, luxuriating in the sensation.

"You may not stink, but you certainly are sticky," he finally said.

"And whose fault is that?" Harper rejoined, stepping under the spray and throwing a sponge at the Nietzschean. "Making me come and come and come until I'm an exhausted, wasted wreck! And just for that crack, you can wash me head to foot, and I'm not lifting a finger! Although a cock may be another story," he giggled.

Tyr had to groan at that remark, something that Harper caused often, but he smiled at the same time. Making use of the sponge that he'd caught reflexively, he slowly washed his lover, enjoying this opportunity after their time apart. He loved caring for Harper like this, something that he would never have believed a year before.

"You're in the perfect place to come again without making a mess of yourself," he teased lightly.

"I'm wrung dry, a desert, completely expended; you'll never get me up again!" Harper claimed with a smirk. Sighing, he leaned back against his lover and let Tyr wash him. "Missed this most of all, I think," he purred quietly. "Missed you taking care of me, of me taking care of you - the quiet times as well as the hot monkey sex."

 _'Hot monkey sex?'_ Tyr shook his head, beyond disbelief after months with Harper yet still taken aback from time to time. "Then come," he said quietly, "I've wanted to fall asleep with you ever since I left." He stepped out of the shower and dried off, then dried Harper as well, sliding an arm around his shoulders to lead him back to the bed.

"Love you, Tyr," Harper sighed, snuggling into the strong embrace. "Who'da thunk it, me in love with a Nietzschean - the Nietzschean who captured me and made me a slave again - a loooove slave," Harper giggled tiredly. "No, not a love slave, a Pet, yeah, that's it. I got turned into a Pet."

"Go to sleep, Pet. You're incoherent," Tyr said, smiling fondly. "I will still be here in the morning." He settled comfortably, Harper secure in his embrace, and he knew that he would sleep well this night for the first time since Harper had found out about his marriage to Elsbet.  


End file.
